Any immigration system — no matter how well designed — only works if the rules mean something.
“Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.”
– Rep. Barbara Jordan
Chair, U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform
The Scale of the Challenge
The Problem
- Illegal employment is easy to find, and law-abiding businesses are undercut by competitors who exploit unauthorized labor.
- Visa holders who overstay also benefit — as long as illegal work is available, there’s no reason to leave.
What We Want
- Require all employers to use E-Verify — the free federal system that verifies work authorization within seconds
- Crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, with meaningful penalties
- Require the Social Security Administration to alert workers when their number is being used by multiple employers — closing the identity theft loophole
The Problem
- Asylum — designed to protect people fleeing genuine state persecution — has been stretched and abused far beyond its original scope.
- Loopholes around who qualifies, catch-and-release, and broad parole authority have allowed multiple administrations to admit millions who don’t qualify under law.
What We Want
- Return asylum to its proper definition: people fleeing genuine state persecution, not generalized poverty or crime
- Require people to seek asylum at a port of entry or apply while waiting in a safe neighboring country — not after crossing illegally
- End the practice of releasing inadmissible people into the country while cases are pending
- Restore strict, narrow limits on parole authority so it can’t be used to admit large groups wholesale
- Apply equal standards to all unaccompanied minors and require sponsors to be vetted
Tell Congress: Enforce the Law
